This week, Ashlyn sits down with YouTuber, actress, comedian, and author Lilly Singh.
As you can tell from those titles, Lilly has accomplished a lot in her career. But this conversation reaches far beyond her accolades and gets to the heart of who she is beyond her work. Lilly talks about what she’s learned in her 15 years in the public eye, how she maintains confidence in the face of criticism, and who she looks to for inspiration these days.
Plus, she tells us about the labor of love that is her new movie, Doin It, a raunchy sex-comedy that Lilly wrote, produced, and stars in.
Lilly Singh: Lilly Singh has turned her lifelong love of performing into YouTube alchemy. She is known for her kooky, energetic mix of comedy sketches — which regularly feature Punjabi parents (both played by her), raps and skits that gently riff on ethnic and gender stereotypes — as well as her observational/motivational monologues and behind-the-scenes vlogs. All have helped her become a huge hit on the video-sharing platform. Her main channel, IISuperwomanII — a moniker she often adopts online — has had more than 2 billion views and has more than 12 million subscribers; her second channel, Superwoman Vlogs has more than 2.2 million subscribers. In 2019, she began hosting the late-night talk show A Little Late with Lilly Singh.
Singh began posting YouTube videos in 2010, while still a student, as a way of battling depression caused in part by her lack of enthusiasm for a conventional career.
Her first video received just 70 views. Success has been gradual. “Every video and every tweet has counted,” she told Marie Claire magazine. “My climb was slow. I took the stairs, not the escalator.”
Being a YouTuber has afforded Singh total control over her output. She brainstorms, scripts, stars in, shoots and edits all her comedy videos herself. As her comic sketches grew in ambition, Singh began to play multiple characters in full make-up and costume. Among her most popular videos are “How Girls Get Ready”, “Shit Punjabi Mothers Say” and “The Difference Between Brown and White Girls.”
After she graduated from York University, Singh’s parents wanted her to study for a masters’ degree — but she persuaded them to let her put her studies on hold for a year to see if she could make a living from YouTube. “So for that year, I just really, really hustled,” Singh told AOL. She made as many videos as possible — and has never looked back; by 2013 she had built a solid fanbase, predominantly teenage girls of South Asian descent living in western countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. By 2014, she was collaborating with other prolific YouTubers, such as FouseyTube and Connor Franta. The following year, she moved to L.A.
In 2015, Singh transformed her YouTube content into a stage act — a mix of singing, rapping, dancing, comedy and motivational speeches, aimed at a teen and pre-teen audience — and embarked on a 31-date world tour, which took her to countries including India, Australia, Dubai, Singapore, the U.K. and U.S. She released her first feature film, A Trip to Unicorn Island — a behind-the-scenes documentary of the tour — on the subscription only YouTube Red channel the following year. Also in 2016, she appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and The Today Show. Her first book, How to Be a Bawse: a Guide to Conquering Life, published in March 2017, became a New York Times bestseller.
Singh has also made inroads into Hollywood, voicing the unicorns Misty and Bubbles in Ice Age: Collision Course; making a cameo appearance in Bad Moms alongside Mila Kunis and Jada Pinkett Smith. She appeared as Raven, a tabloid blogger, in HBO’s adaptation of Fahrenheit 451.
Singh ranked No. 1 in the entertainment category of Forbes magazine’s Top Influencers List for 2017. In July that year, she was appointed UNICEF’s Global Goodwill Ambassador.
In 2019, she began hosting the late-night talk show A Little Late with Lilly Singh. In May 2020, the show was renewed for a second season.
